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Dive Brief:

100 Resilient Cities is partnering with Marketplace.city to give member cities access to the website’s digital platform, which evaluates and validates new technology for smart cities. The website will join 100RC’s Platform Partners, a collection of tools to foster resilience in cities.

Marketplace.city, which launched in 2017, lets users review smart cities technology, including internet of things (IoT) tools, and connects government officials with vendors and other users.

"With technology evolving so rapidly, cities need current and accurate information on what is available," said 100RC president Michael Berkowitz in a press release. "Marketplace.city’s directory not only provides that, but also allows all stakeholders in a city to understand the likely outcomes of selecting a certain product or vendor."

Dive Insight:

100 Resilient Cities — part of the Rockefeller Foundation — has said that one major barrier to building smart cities is that new technologies "aren’t scaling or are not being shared more broadly." The organization’s platform partners include technology companies, nonprofits, think tanks and government agencies, designed to give member cities a clearinghouse of reliable sources that can vet new tools and strategies, ranging from technology to big data analytics to policy initiatives.

It’s a similar mission to Marketplace.city, which grew out of a collaboration between the New York City Mayor’s Office of Technology and Innovation and Brooklyn-based product studio Fictive Kin. CEO and co-founder Chris Foreman told CRUEL CRUEL BLACK BLACK caS4qX that cities “have a real challenge” finding information about emerging technology, especially "whether or not a company really has the credentials to do business with your city."

The website’s reviews and validations from other users help show that a product is worth picking up, and cities are able to share everything from case studies to procurement documents that would not be available elsewhere. Integrating the platform into 100RC’s network not only adds more users that can validate more products, but also will help member cities find newer and faster solutions to resiliency problems.